We thank God for the opportunity of seeing the New Year 2018. It is a great privilege for you and I to witness yet another year.

If you look back at the past years, so many things have happened— some good, some not too good, and some bad. Many who started 2018 with us have passed on to the great beyond.

Like you and I, they commenced the New Year with high hopes, believing that they would soar to greater height. But alas! They never saw the completion of that lofty project they had been working on. Are we better than them? No. We are still alive by God’s grace.

Last year was particularly challenging for us as a nation. With the economy biting hard, so many people could not make ends meet. So many people lost their jobs and loved ones and so many hopes were dashed. On the other hand, despite the challenges that befell our national life, many still had cause to celebrate in the past year.

So many were promoted at their places of work; some who were jobless gained good employment, while so many spinsters and bachelors met and married their life partners. What does this tell us? At every point in time, there are those that would be rejoicing and those that would be sorrowing. That is the hard fact about life.

Life is never very smooth all the time. Sometimes it would be rosy and sometimes challenging. Whatever may be your experience last year, you must have learnt these lessons about life. However, no matter how difficult or interesting last year was, it is time to forge ahead in the New Year.

The year 2018 is going to be a very interesting one by all reckoning. Already, as usual, so many prophets and prophetesses are predicting about what the year would offer. Some are already predicting doom and destruction. Some predictions are neither here nor there, while some leave much to be desired.

As Christians, we should not be guided by such predictions. Our eyes should be focused on our Creator Who knows the end from the beginning. No one can say authoritatively that this is what God would do tomorrow because no one can instruct Him on what to do. What we should do is continue to pray to Him and seek His intervention. He is a merciful Father.

In this year, we need to seek God like never before, judging from the orgy of violence that permeates the land. The activities of Fulani herdsmen, Boko Haram and Badoo cult members leave much to be desired. We pray that God will bring their evil activities to a standstill this year. Even then, the actions of some members of the political class are far from encouraging.

For the love of money and power, so many of them act in ways that are unexpected of God’s children. And so, we are imploring all to be very vigilant and refrain from being used as thugs or agents of violence. We must be ready to stand up for what is right. Our failures in the past to speak out against injustices have led us to this sorry state.